Which .22LR do you prefer...

[ayerskw]

I'm a big fan of the Federal Value Pack... Rarely have ever had a problem but I do agree with a previous post that it is probably a little dirtier. I used the ammo at the Appleseed shoot this last fall - never had an ammo problem or action issue the whole weekend.

 

[JetGirl]

Federal Bulk Pack here, too.
Usually CCI for breaking in new stuff, though.

 

[Tryin']

Federal AutoMatch for Appleseeds; Wolf MT, Lapua, Eley, and CCI SV for paper; CCI SV, CB Longs, RWS SS, and Aguila Super Colibri for suppressed shooting.

If I HAD to narrow it down, it would be Federal Automatch for bulk and CCI SV (because of price/performance) for the rest.

CZ 452 is my "main" .22.

 

[kmshooter]

I bought a brick of Remington Thunderbolts at a gunshow last fall and just got around to shooting it today. Started shooting it in my Mossberg 144LS and had feed problems. Also, the accuracy was all over the target. Tried shooting the ammo in a Henry, Savage, and Marlin 981T as well. Same problems. Feeding issues and terrible accuracy. When we got home and started cleaning the rifles, I was amazed at how dirty the barrels were. It took 3 times longer to get the guns cleaned than when I shoot Winchester Wildcats.

I would not recommend the Remington Thunderbolts. I'm going to buy a box or 2 of several brands to try in the near future. As a side note, we did shoot some Federal bulk that a friend brought. They seemed to be very accurate in all of the rifles we shot today.

 

[MattCFII]

I am slowly trying to switch my stock to CCI Blazer with a few boxes of Stingers and the harder to find Round Nose Mini-Mags. My two main semi-auto .22s, an AKT98 and ISSC M22 need round nose bullets to feed the best (the ISSC will feed Stingers but not any other HP, the AKT98 does fine with a lot of stuff until I use the BDM 30 rounders). Thanks for the link for Blazers Indykid! I need to take the plunge and just order a case instead of haunting the local Dick's which seem to be the only place that carry the Blazer bulk.

Note for you AR conversion shooters apparently CCI is coming out with a bulk pack copper RN specifically for that market.

Winchester Wildcats even though they are round nose, they have a slightly different profile and induce cycling problems with those guns.

Remington and Winchester suffer from too inconsistent priming. I really think this is key to not only dud reduction but also semi-auto cycling. You can notice sometimes with those two brands of bulk ammo that you get a quieter report on occasion that also may not cycle the slide/bolt and I think in a lot of ways it can be drawn back to the priming (and maybe overall bullet seal on the case when dealing with older ammo). Winchester is the slightly better of the two.

I've been pulling bullets of mangled misfeeds and have found that those two brands have spotty and dark priming. The spottiness is what leads to duds since a portion of the rim may not get priming (and why you can often still fire a dud if you rotate it for the firing pin to strike a different spot). When you fire off just the primed case they are quieter than a cap gun in most instances. CCI cases tend to have a even coating of green colored primer material that's primed cases are as loud as a cap gun. The bulk pack Federal stuff is the surprise here. They have very even, bright green priming. The first time I fired a primed Federal bulk case I wish I would have been wearing ear protection because it was noticeably louder and did make my ears ring a little. FWIW, Federal and CCI are owned by the same company, but i don't know if their production lines are the same. You can tell that the Federal 36 gr. HPs bullets are slightly different from CCI Mini Mags 36 gr. HPs, not to mention the different headstamp of course.

 

[Marc]

Federal bulk pack shoots better than any of the other bulk stuff. Killed me some squirrels, too! Good stuff.

+1

 

[T_V]

I like the Federal bulk pack also.
With any manufacturer, you still need to clean your gun at the end of the day.

 

[SSGSAD]

Federal, bulk paks, for my semi auto, 10/22's, ans Ruger handguns, "cheap" lead for my Henry, Lever Action, and wheel guns ....

 

[lon]

I like Eley Subsonics for squirrel hunting, very accurate, hard hitting, yet quiet in my non-suppressed 10-22. For groundhogs I like Winchester Power Points.

 

[wolfman]

For just punching holes in paper, I have been buying the Remington bulk packs. I get a few squib loads now and then, but it works.

The Federal Champion Value Pack has worked well for my .22lr's. I used to just buy whatever, but my Walther P22 is picky. i got really tired of manually cycling it, and the upgrade in ammo definitely made the difference. Went through an entire box about two weekends ago without a single failure to feed.

I've had several squib, or pop-no-kick, loads with the Winchester bulk packs. I wouldn't recommend using such cheap ammo in any semi-auto unless you're experienced enough to know that feel. You could definitely wind up with a stovepipe.

I also have a bolt action .22lr Savage Mark II, the cheapo from Wally World. It was my first rifle back in the day. It's extremely accurate for such a budget gun with that Federal Champion. When I say accurate, we're talking about punching 3 holes in the center of a clay at 150 yards before deciding to blow it with a rim shot.

Best of luck though, happy plinking!!

Man if I was getting squibs, there is no way I would be using those brands of ammo. Any commercial ammo that leaves a projectile lodged in the barrel of a gun, is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Did either of you contact the manufacturer and notify them that you were getting squibs with their ammo?

 

[42769vette]

i buy wolf match by the brick.

 

[ISHOOTHST'S]

Cci on left. Federal Bulk on the right. @ 100 yards.

 

[teddy12b]

I'm glad to come across this thread. I was just out this last weekend breaking in a new savage fv-sr and I wanted to test out a new VQ extractor I just put in my 10-22. I intend to shoot longer range with the fv-sr and the 10-22 is purely for blasting. I brought out some of the federal and winchester bulk I bought at walmart along with some wolf match target, wolf match extra and some federal GMM 22lr. The federal and winchester bulk both shot about the same and were equally as reliable. The two different types of wolf ammo, and the federal were all about ragged hole at 25 yards. It was really windy saturday so I didn't get to test the different ammo like I wanted to.

Anyone know the difference between wolf match extra and wolf match target. I shot two groups side by side and they were almost identical. Both are 40gr and rated at 1050fps.

 

[Michld01]

Federal bulk packs or CCI stingers. I stay away from the golden bullets, too many FTFs.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

As for bulk, I have had the best luck with Federal Champion. CCI Blazers have also worked very well for me. I run nothing but CCI mini-mags out of my Savage MKII and my Buckmark. I'll probably do the same with my new Henry. I'll run anything out of my 597 or my 925. My 10/22 only likes the hyper velocity stuff, CCI stingers and velocitors.

 

[Steelworker]

My 77/22 likes the old cheap American eagles about the best! Still shooting boxes from Big R marked $0.89/each.

 

[charley59]

I've purchased the CCI Blazer and have also had good luck with it.

 

[parson]

Federal bulk has worked well in all my 22s. It's not target ammo but it is plenty good for most of my shooting needs.

 

[stormryder]

Used Winchester Wildcat in my Marlin and Henry a-bolt with great results.
Got a case of Centurion(@.01 a round) at the Gunshow awhile back, have not used any yet.
Will see how it works out.

 

[Wabatuckian]

I used to use CCI exclusively.

After going through a rough spell, I discovered CCI Blazer. Now I use that pretty much exclusively.

I have a nicely tricked out "squirrel sniper" that will do just over 1MOA at 100yds with CCI, and will do about the same with Blazer.

I do not find that Blazer is really of any lower quality, just half the price.

Josh